Pages

Friday, March 3, 2017

Fiction Friday: Vol 7 Tales of Vengeance, Bk V: Spycraft, Ch 1

Volume 7 Tales of Vengeance

Book V: Spycraft

Chapter 1: Address and Cypher

April 1-2, 1624 (10OCT2015)

When Father Signoret arrived in the
Provincial Father’s office, he saw that Cellotius was accompanied by Père Noir,
France’s Jesuit spy-master. The mysterious black hooded priest began without
preamble.

“Although the Prince de Condé was raised
Catholic, his father was one of the greatest leaders among the Huguenots since
Admiral Coligny. Only Henry IV, before God granted him the grace to return to
the Holy Mother Church, was greater. Now the son, despite, so far as we know
being a good Catholic in most ways, is one of the foremost advocates for war
with the Hapsburgs and with Spain in particular. Warfare between the two
mightiest Catholic Kingdoms does not serve the interest of the Church or the
interests of our Holy Father, Pope Urban VIII. Therefore the Society of Jesus
works tirelessly to avoid the occurrence of such a dire event. The Prince is
second in line to the throne and he is influential amongst the other grands and
popular amongst the noblesse d'épée. And since that most unfortunate incident
in the theatre, his faction has grown in size and influence. This new support
could tip the balance in the Royal Council in favor of war with Spain. This
must not happen.

“Should an opportunity arise to, shall
we say, lessen the Prince of Condé’s influence, then we can only assume that
this is an expression of the Divine Will and something that is in the interests
of the Society of Jesus. I trust I make myself clear, Father.”

“Yes your reverence,” Signoret replied.

“Then you may go.”

Guy was summoned to the country château
of his patron the mysterious Duke DeMainz. Guy sipped the excellent brandy
provided by Pendu, the Duke’s mute servant as he gave the Duke an update on his
recent activities. He always found it slightly unsettling to speak to the
motionless mask that the Duke wore. One
never can tell his reaction to anything said. He mentioned de Branville’s
attempt to kidnap the demoiselle Louise Deville and the kidnapping and rescue
of the nieces of the Captain of the Cardinal’s Guard and the resulting death of
the Baron de Villemorin.

Hearing of Villemorin’s death, the Duke reminded
Guy that the public attack by Guy’s cousin Father Signoret on the Baron at the
theater had incensed the noblesse d'épée. The fact that Signoret was a Jesuit
Priest brought back the rumors that the Jesuits had been responsible for the
assassination of good King Henri. This had led some nobles to join Condé’s
faction increasing the Prince’s influence and his standing at court. The Duke
saw this as a danger since Condé was second in line to the throne and he was
ambitious. To counteract this, he told Guy to find some way to lessen Condé’s
standing and influence. In addition to this, he told Guy there was a more
immediate danger.

The Duke told Guy of the existence of a
paper that threatens the King and that could put the Prince de Condé on the
throne of France. The paper is a written contract of marriage between the
King’s father, Henri IV, and the father of Catherine Henriette d'Entragues,
Marquise de Verneuil for a marriage between the King and the Catherine. That
contract predates Henri’s marriage to the Queen Mother, Marie de Medici. Had
the marriage with Catherine occurred, her bastard son Gaston Henri, the Marquis
de Verneuil would have been the legitimate king of France.

The Duke told Guy that Condé was seeking
this document, possibly to undermine the legitimacy of King Louis perhaps to
replace him with the Marquise de Verneuil or that Condé had aspirations to the
throne himself. The Duke said that the contract was most likely among the
papers of the Duke de Sully, old King Henri’s favorite. He told Guy to steal
the contract and bring it to him to keep it out of Condé’s hands.

After he returned to Paris, Guy began
inquiries about the Duke de Sully. He arranged to meet with his friend Chancie,
otherwise known as the Vicomte de Chambré, and with Chancie’s cousin the
Seigneur de Chambré. In the meantime, he assigned his agent, Le Serpent to
watch the Duke in case Condé should make overtures to Sully.

Gaston stood in the office of Cardinal
Armand de Richelieu and watched as the Cardinal ate a last few mouthfuls of his
usual morning broth. It was still dark, but the room was brightly lit by wax
candles. Despite the extremely early hour, Gaston was dressed and armed for he
knew his master’s routine. Every day, the Cardinal rose at two in the morning,
and was promptly surrounded by his secretaries. After his broth, he would work
until six o’clock. Then perhaps he would allow himself one hour or two hours of
additional sleep, before beginning the most challenging part of his day. It
seemed the first thing he had done today on rising was to send for his captain.
The Cardinal waved the rest of the bowl aside and ordered his secretaries out
of the room. Only one man remained the Cardinal’s most trusted amenseunsis,
Père Joseph. Richelieu spoke.

“An agent of the Superintendant of
Finance, one Monsieur Marcel LeDroit, was found dead in an alleyway near the
rue St. Antoine. M. LeDroit had been investigating certain financial
irregularities for the Superintendant, but before he could conclude his investigation
or to report any findings, he was murdered. The financial situation is
important. France has debts from the most recent Religious War that most be
repaid and His Majesty needs additional funds to assure the safety of the
kingdom. Spain has used its control of the Valtelline to send troops along the
Spanish Road to reinforce Spinola and the Army of Flanders. Should the Spanish
turn towards us, France’s northeastern frontier is vulnerable. We need to
reinforce the frontier and we need to retake the Valtelline to close the
Spanish Road. But to do those things we require more soldiers and more soldiers
always require more gold. LeDroit’s investigation may be crucial to finding the
gold we need.

“Monsieur you have proved yourself to be
both brave and resourceful. You are to unravel whatever mystery lies behind M.
LeDroit’s murder. Find out why he was murdered and who was responsible. If
there is a conspiracy behind this I want a list of who is involved and I want
proof of their guilt. Anyone who is resourceful and powerful enough to
successfully conspire against France will have the resources and power to
defend himself in court. So for these traitors to be brought to punished, the
proof must be ironclad, Monsieur le Capitan.

“And one more thing Captain, I want you
to report your findings only to me.”

Père Joseph, spoke. “LeDroit’s body is
in the basement of the Châtelet awaiting recovery by his family. You may want
to start there. Here is an authorization from the Provost to allow you to view
the body.

“And you may need this.” He held out a
coin purse which contained fifty livres. “For expenses.”

Gaston arrived very early at Guy’s door
in the Palais Royale. In answer to the soldier’s hammering, Fabre opened the
door and Gaston said, “Where’s Guy?”

Fabré replied, “Master de Bourges is not
available, sir.”

“But is he here Fabré?” with resignation
the valet nodded yes.

Raising his voice to a sergeant’s parade
ground roar, Gaston continued as he brushed past the valet. “Then I will just
wait here! It is important that I see him right away! No, no! Don’t trouble
yourself Fabré I’ll just wait here on the settee, by myself. If it gets too
dull I may amuse myself by reciting some poetry.” As Fabré hurriedly whisked an
elegant low table away before Gaston could rest his spurred boots on it, Gaston
loudly began to whistle his favorite tune, “Vive
le roi Henri.”

Eventually, as Gaston had known he
would, Guy appeared. He was wearing a fancy silk dressing gown, but his hair
was elegantly combed and waved. Gaston told Guy about his mission and asked for
his help. Guy agreed, after all Gaston was his friend and one never knew when a
favor from the Captain of the Cardinal’s Guard might be of assistance. Guy
suggested they should also obtain the help of his cousin Father Signoret. Then
he told Gaston that he had a previous appointment with the Seigneur de Chambré
and suggested that perhaps Gaston and Father Signoret should accompany him to
see the Seigneur. “That de Chambré seems like he might enjoy helping you solve your
mystery.”

The four met at Guy’s club and the
others agreed to assist Gaston. From de Chambré Guy learned that the Duke de
Sully had a ne’er-do-well son Maximillian who might provide an opportunity and
that the Duke had nearly finished building a new hôtel in Paris. The residence
had almost reached a state where the Duke could move in, which would cause
Sully to move his furniture and papers and provide a second opportunity to get
the contract.

The four decided to examine the body. The Provost’s authorization
dissolved all obstacles and soon the four companions stood in the cold cellars of the
Châtelet where the bodies of unknown corpses awaited identification. The body
of M. LeDroit had just started to decompose, but it was sufficiently putrefied
to cause de de Chambré to turn green despite the heavily scented mouchon that
he pressed to his face. Guy, prepared for this eventuality, had his own mouchon
impregnated with a concoction of herbs prepared by Fabré to numb the nose and
disguise even such a strong odor. Father Signoret, who had trained at the
College of Physicans was familiar with such smells and Gaston, an veteran of both
battles and sieges was used to far worse. M. LeDroit had been a man in his
early thirties, tall, fairly muscular, and dressed as a gentleman. As Father
Signoret examined the corpse to determine the cause of death, the others
examined his belongings.

On a card lying beside the body was the name of the
alleyway in the district of St. Antoine where the corpse had been found by a
squad of the night watch led by a Paris Archer. De de Chambré found an unopened
letter clutched in the body’s right hand. It was unopened, the seal, in the
form of a dagger, was made ofbright red
sealing wax, that looked like fresh blood against the off-white parchment. Guy
stopped de de Chambré before he could open it. “I’d think we should keep the
seal intact. Give it to me and I will open it later.” Guy also appropriated the
bright bright red handkerchief hanging out of a left hand pocket.

In the right hand pocket of the long coat, Gaston
found a wheellock pocket pistol that was loaded and primed with the spring
coiled to fire. “Bad for the spring,” was all the soldier said.

Guy added, “He was expecting trouble.”

In the left hand pocket the coat, was a piece of
paper several columns of letters. “This looks like an interesting puzzle,” the
Seigneur de de Chambré said, his voice muffled by the mouchon he still clutched
to his face.

A=D

E=?

I=L

M=P

Q=?

U=?

Y=B

B=C

F=G

J=K

N=?

R=?

V=?

Z=A

C=F

G=?

K=?

O=?

S=V

W=?

D=?

H=?

L=M

P=Q

T=?

X=Y

Guy,
glanced at the paper and said. “It seems to be a cipher. Perhaps a simple
substitution cipher. I may know more once I open the letter.”

By this time, Signoret had finished examining the
body, but he had found no marks of violence. “Perhaps he was poisoned,” the
Jesuit hypothesized.

“Good thing I brought Fabré.”Guy sent someone to bring his valet, who
examined the body, paying particular attention to the mouth and nose.Fabré said that he recognized the poison as
“a fast-acting metal poison. It has a bitter taste so it was probably
administered in something with a strong flavor that he drank. Perhaps a
full-bodied red wine.”

As they left the Châtelet Gaston blew air out his
nose and said, “Well, I think we’ve earned a drink.” This caused de de Chambré to
suddenly bend over as he vomited the contents of his stomach.

“Your pardon,” he said politely as he fastidiously
wiped his face with a second handkerchief.

They stopped at a nearby tavern where Guy insisted
they have their drink in a private room and he insisted, despite the warm day,
that a fire be laid in the room. After the fire was going and the tavern maid
had left. Guy used the fire to heat a knife which he used to remove the wax
seal from the letter without breaking it. The only writing inside was an
address.

Rue
St. Mihiel 32

De de Chambré said that Rue Saint Mihiel was next to
the Hôtel de Montmorency. With that reminder, Gaston recalled that the street
was the location of the Brothers De Vitoria Bank, for whom Gaston and Norbert
had previously done some work. “There’s a small inn next to the bank…the ‘Bear
and the Lion’.”

Guy recognized the name of the bank. During last
year’s diplomatic mission to the Netherlands he had impersonated a clerk.
Benedict LeVan, one of the other clerks, had worked for that bank. Guy had
identified LeVan as a spy and an affiliate of the Red Brotherhood, a pro
Spanish society that had tried to assassinate the Prince de Cröy and had been
actively working against the mission in Amsterdam.

Next the group went to where the body had been found.
This was an alley in the Saint Antoine district alley. The neighborhood of
Saint Antoine was dominated by the massive bulk of the Bastille to the east and
the alley itself wound between the buildings adjacent to the Church of Saint
Paul. Since Fabré had said the poison was fast acting, they looked for
someplace where he might have been given a drink. The nearest tavern, located
less than a block away, was owned by the Black Cross Club. Though none of the
four were members, Guy and de Chambré knew that the Black Cross was the oldest
gentlemen’s club in Paris, founded nearly one hundred years ago by a group of
Flemish merchants and wealthy merchants still dominated the club membership.
“Not really our sort,” de Chambré commented quietly to Guy, who shrugged in
reply.

“Why don’t you three ask the questions?” Guy said to
the others. “I’ll slip in quietly before you to see what I can observe on my
own.”

The entrance to the club was marked only with a brass
plate that displayed a black Latin cross fleury, the symbol of the club, above
the door. Inside they questioned the bartender who told them that Monsieur
LeDroit had been at the club to meet with a member a Chevalier de Didonne. He
had heard about LeDroit’s collapse and had saved the glasses that both had been
drinking from. He was willing to provide him with the glasses…for a price.
While Gaston was inclined to pay him with his life, de Chambré slid a few gold
coins across the bar which prompted the bartender to immediately hand over the
glasses without any fuss.

Father Signoret knew the Chevalier de Didonne who was
a Knight of Malta. Brother Phillipe was an avid horsemen, a swordsman of some
note, and a member of the Fratellanze di Giganti, a rival fencing school.
Despite the rivalry, he and Signoret had a cordial relationship. Fabré examined
the glasses and found that both glasses contained traces of the deadly,
fast-acting metallic poison which had killed Monsieur LeDroit wine. Guy ordered
Fabré to find an antidote to the poison. Father Signoret was now worried about
the health of Brother Phillipe. He called at Brother Phillipe’s apartment, but
the Knight of Malta wasn’t in. Signoret identified himself as a physician and
questioned the servant about his master’s health and said that it was urgent
that he see him. The servant said that he hadn’t noticed any signs of illness,
but that he would relay the message as soon as he saw his master.